Question About my brew.

[Gepa]

Hi I made my first brew up in over a year thisi s my 4th one in total and I think I really screwed up. I thought I remembered everything but after spending time reading I think I made a booboo.

I made the kit up Saturday after spending 2 days steralising the FV.

I made the Wort up as per Instructions on the tin. But Forgot to Stir the wort or allow it to come to room temp before Pitching the yeast. I could not find the instructions I had with my last brew but the ones on this one did not mention any of that. I Basicly added the cold water and then pitched the yeast in dry as the last time i tried to hydrate I killed it ( have a thermomitor on order now)

After a day there was no real Yeast action going but then after 32hours the Lid had firmed and gas escaped when I was checking. The Foam is not like the Picture on the help thread I found today. It was really cold on Monday and but the Heating belt on as the beer was sitting around 16degrees at 3pmin the afternoon the belt was fine keeping it at a steady 18 Guessed as I had a room thermomiter sitting on the tip of the FV under the old sleeping back and jackets keep it it warm it was at this temp after 12 hours with the belt on I moved the belt further down the FV to around 1/3rd from the bottom but after checking the Wort was warm to touch so I took the Belt off and the thermomitor was around 35 Degrees it took it 14 hours to dao that it is cooled down overnight to 22degrees and there is still some fermenting going on but nothing like I have had in the past.

The lid firms up after an hour of checking as I just went and took pictures and the lid was puffing up again.

Below is a picture of the lid and frothing.








Any thoughts would be apreciated.

[Barm]

Well there's clearly some yeast action going on, as evidenced by the (thin) foam, gas production and ring of yeast deposit round the FV. Sounds reasonable to suppose that lack of aeration and a low initial temperature has caused your yeast to get off to a slow start. And possibly since the yeast crop seems quite poor (it needs the initial aeration to reproduce), raising the temp up so high has subsequently reduced it further.
You can either just give it time; or try pitching some more yeast if it completely dies. Either way - trying to keep the temperature fairly steady, in the 18-25degC region is very desirable.

What does the brew smell like? "Off" or sharp, vinegary smells can indicate infection...

btw most people don't fully seal the FV lid down; just snapping it on at 2 opposing points is better. This will keep out flies, airborne microbes and dirt etc; but also allows excess CO2 to vent safely whilst maintaining a good blanket to exclude air.

And because it seems unusual: how come it took 2 days to sanitise your FV? For me this is a 15min job...

[Gepa]

i had not used the kit in a year so I filled the whole thing up with Sanitizer and let it steep for 2 days then gave it a rinse with it again before making the brew .

There is some more bubbles now compared to the picture but for a froth on top as I would expect the bubbles are about 1cm thick and goes across the whole top now compared to teh earler pic of in patches. does not smell like Viniger smells like beer. it it more steady now. been a at a consisten temp for 24 hours now.

I will leave it alone now until Thursday and check how it is then. need to stop peaking all the time expecting big changes.

[EoinMag]

I'd say the problem you may have caused would be getting up to 35 degrees with the brew belt, I'd imagine you'll have worked in some off-flavours which will be kinda banana and clove flavoured. It might, have these, it might not, but chances are....but it will still be drinkable, just those flavours are at home in a weizen bier but not an english ale.

[Gepa]

The FG came out around 10.04 so it is looking like around 3.5 which is what the kit said.

[Ditch]

What was the kit, please? Just out of curiosity?

[Gepa]

was a youngs it said on the label it should be around 3.5%

[Ditch]

Cheers, mate.

Just that, 3.5% isn't something I'd put the time in to create. I'd as soon drink a mug of tea.

Not knocking ye choice for a moment though. In fact, Youngs sounds a steady and reliable kit. Ye gave it some abuse and still it did what it said on the can? Fair play to all concerned